chapter two MAFFEO BARBERINI—URBAN VIII, THE POET-POPE, OR: THE POWER OF POETIC PROPAGANDA Introduction In the early years of the pontificate of Paul V (1605–1621), an anony- mous avvisatore assembled a series of short biographies outlining the characters and characteristics of the various cardinals who would take part in the conclave if the Pope were to die. About Maffeo Barberini he wrote, after a brief sketch of his career: ‘he is a man of great talent, well versed in Italian letters, in Latin and in Greek; though more assiduous than brilliant, he is of an honourable nature, without any baseness’, which was praise indeed in view of the judgement he passed on some other eminent candidates. It also shows that, already as a cardinal, Bar- berini was known as a writer, a poet.1 Some twenty years later, when Maffeo had become Urban, the well- known literato Fulvio Testi described to a friend an evening he had spent with the Pope. Apologizing to Urban for not having written any poetry recently due to his increased work load, Testi was gently reprimanded when the Pope remarked: ‘We, too, have some business to attend to, but nevertheless for Our recreation sometimes We compose a poem’. Urban went on to tell that he had lately written some Latin poems and would like Testi to read them. ‘And hence, retreating into the next room where he sleeps, he fetched some sheets and started to read to me an ode written after the manner of Horace, which really was very beautiful. I have lauded it and praised it to the stars because certainly as to Latin compositions the Pope has few or none who equal him.’2 1 Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (BAV), Manoscritti Boncompagni-Ludovisi,Vol.C20,f.167v: “è signore d’ingegno grande, di belle lettere vulgari, latine e greche, e piutosto asseg- nato che splendido, ma honorato, senza sordidezza”. 2 M.L. Doglio, ed., F. Testi. Le Lettere, II. 1634–1637 (Bari 1967), 373–374: “E noi pure abbiamo qualche negozio e con tutto ciò per nostra ricreazione facciamo alle volte qualche componimento” (…) “e cosi tirandosi nell’altra camera, dove dorme, ha dato di piglio a un foglio, e m’ha letto un’ode fatta a imitazione d’Orazio, che veramente This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the cc-by-nc License. Peter Rietbergen - 9789047417958 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 03:30:09PM via free access 96 chapter two However, in 1643, the praise that, for yet another twenty years, had been bestowed on the poems of Pope Urban VIII came to a sudden end. Obviously, the Barberini’s disgrace which marked the first year after Urban’s death made people wary to continue lauding the late pope’s poetry. Publishers also must have thought twice before deciding to run a new edition; understandably, they rather tried to curry favour with the new Pope, Innocent X (1644–1655), who was known to be less than interested in such forms of culture and, moreover, positively hated his predecessor. While Innocent’s successor, Alexander VII (1655– 1667), was, again, a great patron of the arts, he nevertheless was too self-centred, not to say vain, to encourage initiatives that would ensure the reputation of Pope Urban as a poet; he rather sought to make his own mark than propagate the fame of the Barberini pope. Also, the taste of the times had changed. Hence, a critical evaluation of Urban’s poems, not hampered by the pope’s powerful presence, did not arise. The 18th century saw a few new editions of his works, amongst which, surprisingly, a full-blown Oxford one. The 19th century remained silent on this aspect of Urban’s biography and of its bearing on papal cultural policy, partly because it did not conceive of the papacy in terms of a cultural agency with obvious propagandistic aims and partly because of its new appreciation of the poet as the romantic genius. Only the great chronicler of the popes, Ludwig von Pastor, dealt with Urban’s efforts in this field.3 After him, there was silence again, till the 1970’s saw a faint glimmer of renewed interest. A poetic program? “Levan di terra al Ciel nostr’intelletto”—‘they lift our understanding towards Heaven’4 Poetry may well have been Maffeo Barberini’s first and most important inclination. Therefore, it is amazing that at least as far as I know no one has ever thought of analysing Maffeo’s life’s achievements in terms of what obviously were his life’s greatest joy, his poems. Admittedly, it would be stretching the available evidence too far if I were to suggest è bellissima. Io l’ho lodata et esaltata fino alle stelle perche certo nei componimenti Latini il Papa ha pochi o nissun che l’aguagli.” 3 L. von Pastor, Geschichte der Päpste, XIII–2 (Freiburg 1928), 900–909. 4 This is the motto of: G.F. Ferranti, ed., Poesie latine del cardinale Maffeo Barberini hoggi papa Urbano ottavo (Rome 1642). Peter Rietbergen - 9789047417958 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 03:30:09PM via free access maffeo barberini—urban viii, the poet-pope 97 there exists some kind of hermetically worded poetic program that, if disclosed, would give us a key to all of Maffeo’s actions. Nevertheless, Maffeo’s poetic compositions, both the ones written before his pontifi- cate and the ones composed after his election, offer important clues to his thinking. It seems to me they can and should be read as a running commentary on many of the issues he had to confront, on many of the actions he did take; they even seem to suggest a unity of thought that may help to give meaning to a number of his deeds and, moreover, point to a surprising consistency and continuity in his policy. However, as most of the poems are difficult to date exactly—neither the manuscript nor the printed sources allow this—some of the sug- gestions made hereafter cannot but be tentative.5 Still, as collections of Cardinal Barberini’s poetry were published even before he was elected to the papacy, we can at least date most of the poems to either before or after 1623.6 Thus, we can try to determine which ideas had ger- minated before this decisive moment in Maffeo’s life and career and which ones were written later, under the pressure of drastically changed circumstances and, therefore, outlooks. Maffeo’s early poetry: from the dangers of life’s pleasures and the obligations of family “pietas” to the glorification of Divine Wisdom Although this chapter does not aim to offer a potted biography, some data on the early life of the man who became Pope Urban VIII have to be provided first. Maffeo Barberini was born on April 5, 1568 astheyoungestofthe six sons of Antonio Barberini and Camilla Barbadori, who were citizens of Florence. Young Maffeo was first sent to school with the Florentine Jesuits and then, in 1584, moved to Rome to live under the tutelage of 5 A valuable effort has been made by: M. Castagnetti, ‘I “Poemata” e le “Poesie Toscane” di Maffeo Barberini. I. Stampe e problemi di cronologia’, in: Atti e Memorie dell’Accademia Patavina di Scienze, Lettere et Arti, Series IV, XXXIX (1979/1980), 283–388. Yet, her lists (318–388) are both incomplete and, to a large extent, approximate, only. 6 According to M. Costanzo, Critica e Poetica del Primo Seicento. Vol. II: Maffeo e Francesco Barberini, Cesarini, Pallavicino (Rome 1971), between 1620 and 1643 some 15 authorized collections of Maffeo’s Latin poems were published, whereas of the Italian verses only 5 editions appeared, between 1635 and 1642. My own counting differs from Castagnetti’s—as in note 5, supra—and Costanzo’s. In Appendix I, a list of the editions is given of the collections I have been able to trace. Besides the manuscript texts, they form the basis of this chapter. Peter Rietbergen - 9789047417958 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 03:30:09PM via free access 98 chapter two his uncle Francesco. In Rome, too, he was schooled in the humanistic curriculum of the Jesuits, in their famous Collegio Romano. Despite his obvious cultural interests, the career mapped out for a young man of his social background demanded that he go on to university to study for a law degree. This he did, at Pisa, where he spent several years. Though he wanted to marry, nothing came of the match arranged for him by his mother. Therefore he returned to Rome in 1588, to seek a career in the Church. With the initial aid of his uncle he soon succeeded, gaining one position after the other and thus moving upwards in the hierarchy of the Curia. The life he had started in 1588 found its culmination in 1623, with his election to the papacy. Since most of Maffeo’s published poems are not dated, and the man- uscript texts, preserved in the Vatican Library’s Barberini Latini, give little information as well, it is somewhat difficult to determine when young Maffeo first embarked on his poetical career. Obviously, the writing of poetry was part of the accomplishments of a gentleman- scholar and therefore incorporated in the educational curriculum of the elite. In his youth, the main influences on Italian poetry still were the sonnets of Petrarch. Recently, some 13 Italian sonnets of young Barberini have been published, all, apparently, written between 1580 and 1600,7 i.e. from the age of twelve onwards. These so-called Tuscan poems, especially in the form of these early sonnets, are visibly less formal, rather more eclectic and, indeed, sometimes more gallant than Maffeo’s later Latin poetry.8 It is not clear whether Maffeo ever planned to publish these early exercises, although his biographer Nicoletti seems to suggest there existed a project to do so in 1617.9 In the end, the first edition of the Pope’s opere volgari appeared only in 1635.